Groundhog Day - AKA "OMG How Much LONGER?!"

Musings on Groundhogs, and the Season of Soil

February 2, 6:00 am.  Been awake for 2 hours now and can't stop wondering:

"WTF am I doing up?  It's dark.  It's cold. The days seem to drag on forever despite being short, yet nothing seems to be getting done.  I'm literally sitting here waiting on the sun. IS SPRING EVER COMING?"

 It feels like waking up to the same dreary winter day over and over.  And over.

No wonder people across the millennia have found rituals for the beginning of February: Imbolic, Candlemas, Groundhog Day (the devolution of these names alone makes me wonder which way humanity is heading.)

Groundhog Day started out as Badger Day. True Story.  In Germany.  And the tradition came to the US - via Pennsylvania - at a place called GOBBLER'S KNOB.  (I shit you not. Geek out on it at this link here.   )

We humans need to know that there's a light at the end of the tunnel.  That the sun will come back.  That the seeds will stir in the soil.  That our art will stop looking like it was painted with a broom held between our elbows (ok maybe that's just my issue).

This is why ze Hunki and I build lights and chandeliers this time of year.  It's why I pour over seed catalogs, and then check the chard and spinach and wish they could also be tomatoes and peppers (I'm sick of chewing on greens by February - but don't miss this amazeballs article about the history of collards!)  It's why we wait for a rodent to forecast the weather, and, with some reluctance and embarrassment to share, it must be why I wrote this dippy, trippy ode to The Season of Soil about five years back.

I think I'll start celebrating Groundhog Day more earnestly... remembering the advice my younger, somewhat wiser, hippy-self provided above:  Relax.  Let it flow.  Clean out the clutter and fluff the nest, purge the bad because good things are germinating... and go back to bed with that nugget of Valentine's Day chocolate - because EVERYTHING is worth celebrating.

Bon-bon in hand, I can see light starting to trickle through the window, and I can't wait to hear what happens on Gobbler's Knob this morning :)